3 ms·
The skeptical comments are interesting. But it doesn't seem like they are the primary market. At Active Interview, we've been doing video interviews for a whil
by cglee 16y ago
The skeptical comments are interesting. But it doesn't seem like they are the primary market.
At Active Interview, we've been doing video interviews for a while now. We've gotten good traction among organizations who have continuous hiring needs and/or those who need to process candidates who are geographically dispersed.
For example, One Laptop per Child used Active Interview to screen a couple hundred applicants from around the world. They used us to test:
1. interpersonal skills & communication
2. language proficiency
How much time/money would it cost to coordinate and phone screen everyone?
We've also gotten a lot of interest from academic organizations, who need to process applicants every semester. We've especially been working with graduate departments, like MBA programs, who have a high number of international applicants. They use us because:
1. Time shifting - it's difficult to set up a mutual time with candidates around the world.
2. Language - many international applicants have through the roof English scores and can write like Steinbeck, but can't speak a lick.
3. Normalize interviews - different recruiters assess candidates with varying degrees of leniency. Active Interview lets the entire recruiting team view, score and comment on every candidate response. The scores are tallied and averaged.
4. Most candidates like taking a video interview over writing yet another essay.
I understand why some may be skeptical, but there's definitely a need for video interviewing for some types of organizations and I'm glad Hirehive is getting some publicity for all of us in this area.
- rdl 16y agoI see the value for some jobs, but audio seems like it is just as good as video, much cheaper, less intrusive, and vastly more accessible.
- cglee 16y agoThis is almost a thing you have to see to believe. Video just gives you so much more resolution and insight. Social science studies have told us many times that 90% of communication is non-verbal - audio only captures that 10%. Of course, nothing beats face to face, but it also comes at a cost (time, money). We built Active Interview to help those who need to quickly process a large number of applicants at as high of a resolution as possible.
- notahacker 16y agoOut of curiosity as much as anything else since you've quite possibly done the research, how much of that 90% of communication is reciprocal (body language towards interviewer, instinctive reaction to questions)?
- nitrogen 16y agoOne problem with audio is that it lacks the facial microexpressions that would be visible to a keen interviewer in a live interview.
- rdl 16y agoSame problem with low-resolution webcam video. I'm not arguing against the value of seeing someone in person (although depending on the context I would be happy to give up the extra data to get the whole thing done faster and more conveniently). I'm arguing against badly-lit, amateur video postage stamps.
- nicholasjbs 16y agoI agree. Videos are particularly good for time-shifting and getting a sense for interpersonal skills. We too think many people will prefer recording a short video to wordsmithing an essay. AI's work with OLPC was awesome!